“Apple is not one of those companies that churns out a handful of press releases every week. Its press announcements are few and far between — and they’re typically adjuncts to the big smash events the company holds to dramatically unveil its latest wonder,” Chris Maxcer writes for MacNewsWorld. “So why did Apple just issue two press releases about incremental product updates? Who is Apple talking to, and what is it trying to say?”

“In years past, the gist of Apple press releases was usually that they were speaking to Apple product enthusiasts and the tech press. The events they accompanied set the stage for consumers to feel good about Apple’s bountiful offerings,” Maxcer writes. “These last two releases, coming on the heels of Apple’s first fiscal quarterly report of 2013 — over which it was busted left and right for having record results that failed to meet Wall Street expectations — only really make sense when read between the lines. In fact, these two releases have the feel of something crafted for the naysayers rather than the enthusiasts.”

Maxcer writes, “It’s too soon to know if this is a change in direction or a real change in tone for Apple, but after applying the question of audience to these press releases, they at least seem to make sense. Advisable? Good? Worth it? Harder to say.”

Actually, I believe Apple beat the street’s projections/expectations for over 20 quarters in a row. This led to the street upping its projections/expectations to a level no company could repeatedly beat.

Now, as far as the street is concerned, Apple can’t win no matter what it does.

Apple could come up with a tablet that does 8K Cinema resolution and 3D without needing glasses, has 4 TB of NVRAM, is at thin as a sheet of paper, is as stiff as diamond, weighs 1 gram and is powered by dark energy that will never need recharging — and the street would say, “Powered by DARK energy. Apple is doing something diabolical. Sell! Sell! Sell!”

Point upgrades and incremental product upgrades have been de rigeur for a decade for Apple. The only difference is that this is the first time it has occurred with the iDevice, iOS divisions. Probably means nothing special at all. On the other hand, if you really need to read between lines, I would think the new iPad model implies that the current design is going to last at least a few months longer – either instead of the February/March release of an iPad 5 or alongside a thinner, lighter version ala the iPad mini.

You know, the guy ought to just type http://www.apple.com/pr and take a look at 2012. It’s not that hard. Had he done that (he mentioned he hadn’t) he’d have seen that actually Apple sends out press releases more than one-per-week.
As for a press release on the new iPad Apple introduced a new price point, so of course they issued a press release to get their message out there behind it.
I didn’t see (in 2012) a press release for iOS 5.x upgrades, but iOS 6.1, with it support for LTE more globally, isn’t that much of a stretch for press release candidacy, especially given the press release announcing that AC/DC is now on iTunes (don’t worry, I’m a fan of AC/DC but already own the discs I wanted from them).

The press can be a pain in the ass. You can bet that Apple’s tightlipped approach is from Steve Jobs. That’s great when it works. But unfortunately all businesses need positive press coverage. Even Apple. I think they should beat their own drum a little more often when possible. Tightlipped and mysterious works well when there is little or no competition. That’s just not the case now unfortunately.